However, his conduct on such occasions was not uniform: in 1794 he declined to pursue George Frederick Cooke for breach of his articles (Charles Mathews observing "he would not distress him for the world") and, when in 1788 Mary Wells appealed for release from her contract on account of domestic difficulties, Daly responded by tearing up the document in her presence. The quality of his relationship with his leading players varied: while Mrs Siddons complained he "adopted every means of vexation for me that he could possibly devise", Mrs Abington credited him with every endeavour "to make her situation in the theatre as agreeable as could possibly result from the most friendly and polite attention". Several players took space in Dublin newspapers or directly addressed audiences from the stage to vent complaints about their treatment by Daly. Their grievances sometimes grew from not being cast in the parts to which they aspired and, in Daly's defence, the Thespian Dictionary posited that occasional slander was the penalty every manager paid for "resisting the whims and caprices of his company". Where events led to a breakdown in relationship, there are instances of Daly taking pains to repair it. James Grant Raymond, a man of "excellent private character", was a player in Daly's company and afterwards for Frederick Jones before himself becoming manager at Drury Lane. He spoke of Daly's relationship with him during the 1790s "in the highest terms". If W. C. Oulton was indeed their author, two of the observations in the Thespian Dictionary may hold particular relevance when assessing Daly's management record. "If Mr Daly's conduct could not always be defended," wrote his biographer, "it was not always justly represented", adding that "theatrical enmity is well known to proceed from secret jealousy and theatrical friendship from secret interest". As duellist and dissolute Daly's reputation for duelling was magnified after his death. Described in 1866 as a "professed duellist" by "a dramatic writer of eminence", in 1908 he became a "professional duellist" under the pen of the historian W. J. Lawrence, the latter translating the suit in which the teenage Daly faced Jonah Barrington into his "regulation attire" for combat. Clare Jerrold (wife of Walter Jerrold) augmented but contradicted Barrington's recollection when, in her biography of Dorothea Jordan, she declared Daly was "a member of the Fire-eaters' Club", perhaps encouraging subsequent descriptions of Daly as a "frequent and ferocious" duellist. Although